Now What?: Reflections on a pyrrhic victory.

On May 1st, 2023, with little fanfare, the World Health Organization declared the end of the COVID-19 global emergency. The virus that had ravaged the world for just over three years, forced many into isolation, devastated workplaces, and took loved ones from us, has now faded to background noise of booster shots and broken trust. Should we not be happy? We made it…?

Before 2020, words like Alpha, Delta, and Omicron were more associated with rambunctious fraternities and sororities than strains that would kill millions. The official death toll number at the start of 2023 for the three years of the pandemic sits at around 7.4 million people. A staggering number on its own, but this number could be a tragic underestimation. The true total could exceed eighteen (18) million deaths , a number we will likely never know considering certain authoritarian countries have and will continue to withhold their true numbers.

If this estimate This is as many deaths as soldiers World War 2 (15 million) in half the time. Yet, there will be no ticker tape parade for this “victory”, our enemy was not the archetypal bad guy in Hugo Boss jackboots, but one that is invisible to the eye and pervasive in our everyday lives.

Freedom protests still exist.

Our healthcare system still struggles.

Now what?

The debate around government overreach and body autonomy was not new prior to The Pandemic. Both points are essential to debate in a healthy democracy, but these topics now are characterized by shouting over each other and ad hominins rather than anything resembling a healthy society. We banged our pots and pans in support for the healthcare workers in 2020 and called them heroes. Rightfully so. Yet those who we called heroes not too long ago still cry out for support and resources as they did back then. Now no pots bang in gratitude for them and met with silence and indifference. COVID was not just the death of millions but the death of trust and good intentions.

Trust in the scientific community is low.

Trust in our media is low.

Now what?

We should be celebrating a monumental achievement of global scientific coordination in the production of an effective and safe mRNA vaccine in the time that we did. Yet shockingly, it bred distrust and sowed dissent. Partisan media on all sides fed the echo chambers and flung mud at those across the aisle. Fact based news was drowned out by a deluge of sensationalism and misinformation.

Where the battle against a virus had global coordination, rebuilding trust in institutions, media, and each other is a battle without a plan. There are no weekly updates from political leaders charting a course for a post-COVID world. There are scant few international committees formed to tackle unethical practices and partisan propaganda in journalism.

In June 1945, in the ruins of Europe, after the world fought tyranny together at great cost, we committed to rebuilding our world better than it was before. Commitment to victory then meant going beyond the war and being part of a lasting peace.

There is no Marshall Plan for COVID. We’re left with the ruins and expected to rebuild on our own.

Now what?

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My partner and I were sitting in the food court of North Hill Mall, munching on Thai Express while dozens of shoppers went about their business on an unremarkable Friday afternoon. We had spent the previous hour shopping at Home Depot for spring projects, judging by the crowds, we were not the only ones.

We didn’t hear the news through jubilant cries from strangers or a breaking news broadcast, but through a bland news article on our phone we stumbled upon by chance.

“COVID-19 pandemic declared over” it read. We looked at each other in disbelief. Disbelief quickly turned into a lump in my throat.

“Well that’s it, huh…” I said. I had lost family members to COVID, and my own career was deeply impacted by the pandemic, it should have been a moment of celebration. It’s over.

“We made it…” my partner said, with similar look in her eyes. I could have cried, but it wasn’t in joy.

This didn’t feel like victory. It felt hollow. Nothing won.

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Now what?

I struggle to find a time where there was so much work to do that was met with so much apathy. I can admit that I would love more than anything to forget the struggles of the past three years, and to move on as if it didn’t happen. Yet, I know I can’t. My work as a journalist, and one that sees ethics as non-negotiable, is vital to moving forward, rebuilding. None of us can. We need healthcare workers, truckers, artists, politicians, activists, scientists, tradespeople, and industry to face the reality of a post COVID world, that we all have a part to play.

Part of COVID was learning that sometimes things end in anti-climactic ways and being forced to live with that. This isn’t the victory I was imagining or wanted but it is a victory, nonetheless.

Gavin John is a freelance journalist from Calgary, AB. Follow him at @gjohnjournalism on Instagram.